WANTED: Earth-Two's Most Dangerous Super-Villains
Two-Face
Personal information
Character History
Real Name: Harvey Kent
Residence: Gotham City
Occupation: District Attorney, Criminal
First Appearance
(Golden Age): Detective #66 (August 1942)
First Appearance (Post-Golden Age): Superman Family #211 (October 1981)
The early life of Harvey Kent before he become the District Attorney of Gotham City in 1942 is largely unrevealed. Affluent and handsome, Kent was often known as "Apollo" by the Gotham Press for his good looks and dashing character. In August of 1942, Kent was the lead attorney against notorious Gotham gangster Salvatore Moroni. During his trial, Kent called the Batman as a lead witness and exhibited a cardinal piece of evidence from the crime scene - Moroni's double-headed silver dollar coin. Enraged at being cornered, Moroni leaped from the behind the defendant's table and flunk a flask of vitriol, a highly concentrated acid at Kent. Batman leapt forward but only partial deflected it, resulting in half of Kent's face and one hand being doused.
Taken to a hospital, Kent learns that he is hideously disfigured. At attempt to recruit a European plastic surgeon fails when the surgeon is reported captured by the Nazis and sent to a concentration camp. When even his fiancee Gilda was taken aback by his disfigurement, Kent suffered a psychotic break. Convinced that his disfigurement had revealed a dual nature, he resolves to take on a new identity as Two-Face.. He carved disfigurement into one face of Moroni's coin and used it to guide his decision making; a good side up on a coin flip meant to act benignly, the bad side drove a decision for evil.
Two-Face begins a dual crusade across Gotham. A time he commits outrageous crimes based on the number two, such as robbing a double feature or hijacking a double-decker bus. Driven by the evil side of the coin, he engages in robbery and murder. On the other hand, a good flip leads him to paths of philanthropy, given his stolen loot of orphanages or paying off someone's mortgage.
After a daring robbery at a theatre, Two-Face flees the Batman down a one-way street. A patrolman seeing him going the wrong way alerts Batman to his path and the hero pursues Kent to his home and confronts him. He attempts to appeal to Kent's original ethos and offers to help mitigate his crimes as a temporary insanity. Pressed to decide, Two-Face flips the coin and in a stroke of fate, it lands on its edge, offering no guidance. Two-Face concludes that his life would in the hands of fate (Detective Comics #66).
As Batman and Two-Face ponder the next moves, a patrolman bursts in and see Batman in evident danger, fires his pistol at Two-Face. The criminal is hit and falls but unknown to the policeman or Batman, the bullet had been stopped by Moroni's coin, striking the evil side. Two-Face interprets this as a decision by fate to continue his life of crime and flees through an open window.
From there Two-Face, returned to a life of crime based on twos. He robs a tennis double-header but gives the money to charity when the coin turns up good. He kidnaps the body double of a wealthy eccentric for a $200K ransom but is thwarted when Batman and Robin infiltrate the operation in disguise. As Batman tries to subdue Two-Face, the criminal slings his heavy coin, stunning the hero. Faced with the opportunity to kill Batman, Kent's personality surfaces and sees himself as a better man. He flees and finds wax-based make up to restore his feature. He then visits Gilda claiming recent plastic surgery had fixed his injuries. As they enjoy a candlelight dinner, the heat of the flames melt the wax, exposing his true features, horrifying Gilda and sending Two-Face on a rampage once again. After tussling with Batman, Two-Face and his gang attack the shop of the man who sold him the make-up and burn his shop to the ground. The mask maker's son vows revenge and uses the make-up to disguise himself as a member of Two-Face's gang. He intercepts Two-Face at a robbery of a ball game and slips into gang. He then passes information to Batman who follows them and the two subdue Two-Face and take him to prison (Detective Comics #68).
Tw0- Face did not remain jailed for long, escaping before he could be brought to trial. He re-formed a gang and began his crimes a new, sometimes robbing to give to charity, sometimes for himself, always at a flip of a coin. One evening he robs a dual concerto and confronted by Batman, resolves to shoot the crime fighter. Unknown to either of them, Kent's fiancee Gilda is also in attendance and attempts to intervene, only to be hit by the bullet. The sight of his fallen love breaks Two-Face totally into the Kent persona, who realize that his persona as a monster was all of his own making and those who loved him as the handsome attorney, loved him still. In the hospital, he commits himself to reform and Gilda but his gang still craves his criminal acumen. When they snatch him from the police, he tells them he is going straight but they threaten him to share the crime he planned. When he does they bind him in a warehouse and take off. Angling himself near a window, Two-Face drops $2 bills from his wallet until passers-by report the odd occurrence to the police. Realizing who it is, Batman speed to the warehouse, learns the plan and intercepts the crooks, ending the career of Two-Face. Based on the extenuating circumstances and testimony from Batman, Kent is sentence to only a year in prison. Over that year, it is learned that the famed surgeon had escaped from Germany and made it to the US. The miraculous physician completely restores Kent's original appearance and he returns to a life of law and order (Detective Comics #80)
At some point after this Harvey and Gilda are wed. They live for years in peace tho Kent is plagued by nightmares. In 1948, Kent's butler learns of this and begins to sedate Kent and conduct crimes disguised as Two-Face. Batman eventually catches on and the butler arrested, clearing Kent's name (Batman #50). In 1952, the story of Two-Face was made into a movie but a jealous prop man switches a fake vial for actual acid, burning actor Paul Sloan's face in a similar manner as Two-Face's. Driven insane Sloan becomes the new Two-Face until defeated by Batman and turned over to a plastic surgeon. Whether Sloan ever recovered is unknown (Batman #62). Later that year, at an exhibit on crime, theater manager kidnaps Harvey Kent and disguises himself, going on a crime spree as Two-Face expecting Kent to take the blame. His plans are eventually foiled by Batman (Detective Comics #187),
In 1955, Harvey and Gilda Kent attended the wedding of Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle, where Kent was targeted by a hitman hired by a vengeful felon Kent had sent to prison. The assassination is ultimately thwarted by Superman (Superman Family #211). The later activities of Harvey Kent are unknown. In the early 21st century, the Joker of Earth-Two had reached a decrepit old age and mourning lost comrades, attempts to recreate Two-Face by attacking Harry Sims, fiancee of Helena Wayne, with acid. There are not records of Joker encountering Two-Face on Earth-Two and who he may have been remembering as deceased is unknown (Justice Society of America Annual #1). Paul Sloane unhealed by his surgery, Harvey Kent having a relapse or a different individual entirely are possible and the Joker's death may have left the answer lost forever.
Powers and Abilities
Harvey Kent was a brilliant lawyer and strategist, talents that became indispensable in his role as Tw0-Face, Driven perhaps by a constant state of rage, Two-Face appeared to be an above average combatant with higher than normal (albeit not superhuman) strength and agility. Whether any of this was a function of his injuries is not clear.
Weaknesses and Limitations
Two-Face's primary weaknesses were his unstable personality and his obsession with the number two, sometimes leaving clues that led to his defeat. While an excellent phsyical specimen with some evident ability, Two-Face was mortal and could be injured or killed as any human.
Multiversity
The Two-Face of Earth-One is named Harvey Dent and his history is thought to be largely similar to the Earth-Two version, with the added wrinkle that Maroni was actually aiming for a detective called "Pretty Boy", not Dent directly (DC Super-Stars #14). In this timeline, Two-Face is also cured by plastic surgery but the effects are undone when Dent is caught in an explosion the re=scars half his face and drives him back to crime (Batman #81). He is largely remanded to Arkham Asylum tho escapes frequently and has an international criminal reputation. He has an competitive partnership with the Joker (Joker #1, Brave and the Bold #129-130), his good side has allowed to aid the Justice League (Justice League of America #125-126) and he is the father of Teen Titan Duela (Harlequin) Dent. In his final documented case, he works with the Black Mask and while Batman attempts to reform him once more, it appears that the evil side of Two-Face permanently takes over. He is active until the Crisis on Infinite Earths and his future in the Earth-One timeline is unknown.
The Harvey Dent in this timeline is believed to have already had pre-existing mental illness prior to his disfigurement having been responsible for his brother's death and indirectly his mother's suicide. Raised by an abusive father, Dent's personality was thought to schism into a darker face that he kept suppressed. Working hard to overcome his upbringing, Dent became a star district attorney in the public light while working behind the scenes to ride the Gotham PD of corruption and bring down the Falcone crime family with the new vigilante Batman out of public view. Believing their marriage threatened by his work load, Gilda becomes the Holiday killer in an effort to eliminate enough crime that Harvey could spend time at home. Ultimately Dent becomes Two-Face and begins a career simiilar to other timelines (Batman: The Long Halloween LS, Batman: Jekyll and Hyde LS).
In this timeline Two-Face is again a master adversary of Batman and the Gotham Police but also has brief periods of reform, such as when Dr, Thomas Elliot restored his features with advanced plastic surgery. When Elliot was revealed to be the villain Hush. Dent helped Batman defeat him (Batman: Hush LS). Two-Face reverted to form soon after (Batman #653) and remained that way until the Flashpoint event closed off this timeline from view..
Earth-1
The Harvey Dent of this world is also a leading District Attorney but was killed in an attack by Sal Moroni, causing his sister Jessica to develop a split personality which is she imagined part of herself as Harvey and becomes a sociopath (Batman :Earth One Vol. #1-3).
The Two-Face of the Earth-12 time is thought to have a similar history as the Earth-One version but by the 21st century had vanished from known records (Batman: TAS, Batman Beyond vol. 3 #2)
Earth-17
In the atomic wasteland world of Earth-17, Harvey Dent is a multi-limbed mutant monster called Two-Faced (nfinite Crisis: Fight for the Multiverse Vol. 3).
Earth-18
Two-Face exists in this gun-slinging 19th century timeline but little is known of history (Dark Crisis: Big Bang #1).
Earth-19
Harvey Dent is a prosecuting attorney in Victorian era Gotham (Gotham by Gaslight LS) who becomes the disfigured Double Man under unknown circumstances (Convergence: Shazam #2).
Earth-21
Two-Face is known to exist in this timeline but nothing of his history is known (DC: The New Frontier).
The Two-Face of the Earth-22 has little known history but was last seen as a prisoner of Gog in a large holding facility for that world's criminals (Superman/Batman World's Finest #22).
Earth-32
Harvey Dent is scarred by Sinestro to become Binary Star (Batman: In Darkest Night LS).
Earth-40
The Two-Face of 1940's Earth-40 is half man, half mutated insect, the full origins of which are unknown (JSA The Liberty Files: The Unholy Three LS).
Earth-43
Two-Face in this timeline is a victim of the newly vampiric Batman but as nothing in this timeline stays dead for long, his final fate is unknown (Batman: Red Rain LS)
Appearances
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Issue |
Comment |
Reprinted in |
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First Appearance and origin, vs. Batman and Robin |
Batman Archives #2, Batman:Featuring Two-Face and the Riddler TPB, Batman Chronicles #6, Golden Age Batman Omnibus Vol. 2 HC |
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Continued from Detective #66, vs. Batman and Robin |
Batman Archives #2, Batman:Featuring Two-Face and the Riddler TPB, Batman Chronicles #7 , Golden Age Batman Omnibus Vol. 2 HC |
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Vs. Batman and Robin, reforms and is cured of his appearance |
Batman Archives #3, Batman in the Forties, Batman Chronicles #10, Golden Age Batman Omnibus Vol. 3 HC |
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Batman #50 |
Dent’s Butler masquerades as Two-Face |
Golden Age Batman Omnibus Vol. 6 |
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Batman #68 |
Actor Paul Sloane is transformed into a new Two-Face |
(Two-Face) - Batman from the 30's to the 70's, Batman Annual #3 |
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Detective Comics #187 |
Theatre Manager George Blake disguises himself as Two-Face |
Batman Omnibus Vol. 8 HC |
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Superman Family #211 |
Harvey and Gilda Kent attended the Wedding of Bruce Wayne and Selina Kyle |
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